Lyndhurst, NJ – The Concordia College Clippers baseball team concluded their regular season schedule with a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) showdown with Felician College on Wednesday afternoon. The Clippers needed a win to earn the sixth seed in the CACC tournament however, the Golden Falcons edged out a 5-2 victory to prevent Concordia from qualifying for the post season.
Felician got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning with the first run of the game and added another run in third to take an early 2-0 lead. Concordia was unable to get their offense going through the first four innings as the team only recorded two hits.
In the top of the fifth, the Clippers grabbed their first run of the game off an RBI single by Yonatan Rodriguez (Tarrytown, NY) which scored David Perlleshi (Eastchester, NY) on the play. The Golden Falcons regained their two-run lead with a sacrifice fly in the sixth to take a 3-1 advantage.
Concordia responded in their next at-bats with a sacrifice fly of their own to trail by only a run. Michael Barbetto's (New City, NY) fly out to right field was far enough to score David Velázquez (Queens, NY) as the Clippers looked to finish the final innings on a strong note. Felician would put together a two-run bottom of the eighth inning to take a 5-2 lead as Concordia was now down to their final at-bats to keep their season alive.
The Clippers got their first two batters on the base paths with no outs and eventually loaded the bases with only one out. The Golden Falcons would work hard to keep Concordia off the scoreboard in the ninth as the Clippers left all three runners on base; Felician picked up their 25th victory of the season.
Felix Lopez (Brooklyn, NY) pitched 5.2 innings for Concordia as he allowed three earned runs on 11 hits while striking out four batters in the loss. Ted Robertson (Mount Vernon, NY) and Christopher Motta (Bronx, NY) finished the remainder of the game for the Clippers allowing a combined two earned runs on six hits.
Concordia (12-31, 9-11 CACC) finished the regular season tied for sixth in the CACC standings with Caldwell College. Because the Cougars swept the regular season games against the Clippers, Caldwell earns the sixth seed for the post season which is set to begin on Tuesday, May 5th.